My feedback (surprisingly positive)

I am surprised. Normally I am the one who criticizes game systems but obviously not this time... strange. Maybe I somehow ended up in a parallel universe!

I like the new control and targeting system. Yes it is not perfect and needs to be optimzied here and there but basically combat now feels so much better. It is more intense, I have to aim and look at the enemies. It is simply much more fun! Engaging enemies, having to move around, face them, aim and try to attack tactically so that I can concentrate on one enemy just feels like combat. A very good decision to add this system!

It needs some optimization though. For example sometimes it is hard to interact with items (for example I couldn't take a key lying on a table).
Also when looting a corpse and not taking everything, interactive mode doesn't automatically switch back to the regular mouse movement mode.
And I think that we need a drag mode without having to press TAB. Pressing and holding the mousebutton longer and we can drag items around and move them to the inventory etc.

As for dialogues (aside from the conversation window which I hope will be substituted for a better one in the near future), I think that NPCs should react better to us. For example asking the same thing again should not result in the NPC telling us the exact same thing again like a robot. He should say something like "You already asked me that," or "Haven't we talked about this already?". Also NPCs should recognize me when I talk to them again. Some do it, some don't.

Following the Love quest to Necropolis results in us reaching a five-skull area right at the beginning of the game. Is this intentional and if so how are we supposed to survive there this early in the game - especially in SP mode?

I think that graphics are getting better and better. It is more fun, exploring the scenes but I think that there should be more things to discover. If I find a ruin there should be something there, for example a chest etc.

I am hoping for lots in cities in offline mode to be filled with fitting houses so that the cities do get a cohesive, interesting and fitting look.

Also POTs are still there in offline mode, shouldn't they be removed?

The skill progression on the right side of the screen: Please make the icons disappear after a few seconds.

I also think that the "beaming into scenes" effect should be redone so that it doesn't look like we are beamed down from the Enterprise.

All in all release 29 so far did have a very positive effect on me and I am looking forward to how the game develops further.

 

Never thought I would say this... R29 had a positive effect on me too. What dimension is this again?

 

+1 on all points - especially the beaming into scenes.

Well stated and I'm liking things too... except for the crashes but that's easily forgiven.

 

If you right mouse click inside the container graphic, whether looting bodies or crates, it will close the graphic and return you to mouse look mode.

 

As long as they keep the uncheck the force targeting mode for combat option, get rid of the reticle option, and let me adjust the other things to make it similar to how it was before I'm happy. I was able to do this when playing and it's almost, not quite, like it was for me before. I have it configured so that it's playable for me without getting sick now, hope the options stay.

 

But clicking on the X should also activate the regular movement mode.

 

Player towns will eventually not be in offline mode. Baby steps.. but they'll get there..

 

We actually had this in the earliest releases, and had to remove it due to complaints people were missing dialog and wanted it repeated. It's very easy to denote when an NPC has told a player something, and occasionally it will be noted.

You should not be racing to Necropolis from the beginning of the game. There are all the various tasks in Soltown and Ardoris (including dungeons such as Tower of the Shuttered Eye) that come before Necropolis in the interim. We'll do a better job of pointing this out and adding more sidequests, but Necropolis is intended to be the halfway point in the Path of Love. (Also, running away from monsters is always a viable option...)

 

How about if the NPC says something like that: "We already discussed that, should I repeat it to you?" And then we type in "yes" if we want it to be repeated...

 

My impression is positive too. With a little love, the combat and interactive UI controls might just work for me. I worry a little about the shallowness this late in development.

 

That's a little extra work for the player to keep having to ask for something to be repeated. What I would do, in at least some cases.. is modify the dialogue in the 2nd+ telling. Such as.. "I thought I told you this already.. but.. "

 

Yes this would also be a good option. But having the exact same sentence again seems odd and rips out of the illusion of talking to a person, imho.

 

I'd think that would get even MORE tiresome, especially if you always had to say "yes" or "no" every time you accidentally repeated yourself. The same effect can be done more naturally, I think, by having the NPC react to your repetition when it's important.

We already do this in many instances.

 

Perhaps but ultimately you need to strike a balance for the best bang for your proverbial buck. Ideally, you'd want each and every NPC in the game to have completely unique dialogue but it's just not practical on this scale.

 

We are already coming fairly close (community writers such as enderandrew are helping quite a bit and we will cycle back around to the background NPCs once the main story is complete). But NPCs will always sound like NPCs, not people. Expecting a SOTA NPC to pass a Turing test is wildly unrealistic.

 

I kind of figured as much. I just haven't talked to many NPCs yet and I assume the dialogue will never really stop being refined throughout development.. so I'm really looking forward to seeing how far it really goes.

 

@Lord_Darkmoon,

What do you think about Brittany?

 

It is a very beautiful city. I wish that every other city would have this level of detail. I really like it - aside from the player housing which will probably/eventually destroy the look and feel of the city

 

Britanny actually looks as if it were intelligently laid out as to minimize player griefing through decorating. The layout is more particular than the one you see in Owl's Head.